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REPUBLICAN STATE EXECUTIVE COM. DOCUMENT. 



Read and Circulate Among Tour Neighbors. 



1/ 



Hon. JOHN SHERMAN, 

AT THE RATIFICATION MEETING, 
"WedLnesday IVig-ht, JTniie SI, ISTl, 



The preliminary work is now complete. The Convention 
to-day has been distinguished for its numbers, ability and 
character. You have had more than the usual diversity of 
opinions as to candidates. Some feeling of disappointment 
is inevitable, but on the whole every delegate will feel that 
he has been fairly treated, and that he can now support the 
ticket, the whole ticket, and nothing but the ticket ; not that 
it is just as he wishes, but that it has been fairly made by one 
of the ablest conventions that ever assembled in Ohio. We 
all feel, too, that organization is indispensable to success in 
every movement, great or small. 

The matters involved in this election not only reach to 
every department of our State Government, but will affect 
the apportionment of our State and the revision of our Coh- 
stitution. It will affect you in the National Councils, and 
will be a decisive sign to the great Presidential contest of 
1872. It is therefore a matter of pride and satisfaction to 
see the Republican party of Ohio, with its glorious history 
and proud record, enter into this canvass with a ticket Avorthy 
its support, with its principles sanctified by great success, 
ready to enter upon new reforms and able to carry them out. 

And we enter upon our canvass with one satisfaction that 
does not often fall to the fate of a party. We have the in- 
dorsement and approval of our political adversaries. We 
have administered the Government of the United States and 
of this State, for now ten years. We have had many con- 
tests, in war and in peace — contests involving great changes 
in our Government — contests political and administrative. 



C&l 1 
2 .t)SSS 

We have realized the original idea of the founders of oar 
Government — a central government, supreme in its limited 
powers, surrounded and supported by thirty-seven local State 
Governments — and all now moving on in harmony. We 
have emancipated four millions of slaves. We have secured, 
by the highest constitutional sanctions, the liberty and equal- 
ity of all citizens before the law. We have administered our 
internal affairs so that our credit is untarnished, our industry 
is prosperous, our Territories are forming into States, new 
railroads are building, old disputes are dying away, and 
nothing is needed on the part of the Government but the fair 
enforcement of the Constitution and laws for the protection 
of persons and property. We have so managed our internal 
affairs, and have so borne ourselves with foreign nations, that 
we have now no dispute or controversy with any nation of 
the world, and our strength and power have been so demon- 
strated that we need not fear that any nation will desire a 
contest with us. The theorv and principle of a republican 
government is so strengthened by our example as everywhere 
to enlarge the powers entrusted to the people. Even the poor 
negro — emancipated by our laws and clothed with political 
power — is recognized by our old Democratic adversaries as a 
man and a brother. 

I congratulate you that we have now, in Ohio at least, 
the formal approval of the great distinguishing measures of 
Republican policy, by the recent convention of Democratic 
politicians here in Columbus. They tell us that they recog- 
nize as accomplished facts the three amendments to the Con- 
stitution, and they pledge themselves to the full and faithful 
enforcement of the Constitution as it now is, so as to secure 
equal rights to all persons under it, without distinction' of 
race, color or condition. So far well. It is a great matter to 
secure even a formal acquiescence in constitutional changes, 
especially when they involve the rights of millions of people, 
and when they have been so steadily opposed in all stages by 
the Democratic party. North and South. They were the 
issues of the war. They were the issues since the war. They 
were mainly the issues of the last Presidential campaign. 
Opposition to them was the starch, the uniting element of the 
Democratic party. Where would they have been without 
the bate of the negro? What bond holds the mass of the 
people of the South to the Democratic party but negrophobia? 
Where will Kentucky be w'ith(;ut this tie? Her old affinities 
were not with the Democratic party. Where will be that 
great mnss of honest but mistaken men, who feared the effect 
upon our institutions of the citizenship of emancipated slaves ? 
Where will be that other class of Democrats, whose only 
political idea was founded upon prejudice against and hate of 



-S.. 



negroes, and who, in the mobs of New York, and in organ- 
ized mobs of the South, hunted down, whipped and murdered 
negroes to prevent them from exercising either civil oi*^ politi- 
cal rights, and who whipped, scourged and murdered white 
men and women, too, for educating and being friends of the 
negro race? What will Jeif. Davis say, who, though his life 
■was fairly forfeited by his treason, yet commands influence 
over more votes in the South than we have Democrats in 
Ohio? What will the large minority of Ohio Democrats say 
who protested in the Convention against acquiescing in the 
amendments? Still, in spite of all this uncertainty, it is a 
glorious fact, of which every Republican may be pround, 
that a majority of the Democrats of Ohio acquiesce in the 
great measures we have brought about — promise obedience to 
them and enforcement of them, and beg of us no longer to 
consider them as political issues before the country. 

We would have greater cause for rejoicing if we did not 
see so many reasons for regarding this new departure as a 
Trojan Horse — a new device of the enemy to steal into our 
camp and betray our cause. What do they mean by de- 
nouncing the extraordinary means by which the amendments 
were brought about? The only means by which the amend- 
ments could be adopted was by a vote of two-thirds ot each 
House of Congress, ratified by three-fourths of the States- 
Was this consent given ? If so, the fiiuendments are the 
supreme law. Do they dispute the fact? If not, why this 
back-handed lick at what they ratifiy and agree to enforce? 
Again: What do they mean by vigorously ajiplying the 
Democratic rule of strict construction to the amendments? 
Does this conceal some covert purpose to defeat them? Is 
this a new Kentucky resolution of ^98 containing the heresy 
of Secession and Nullification ? The 14th amendment is, 
mainly, only the true interpretation of the old Constitution, 
but the vital ])rinciples and guarantees of the old Constitution 
were nullified by strict construction, or rather by false con- 
struction. Hence the necessity of the 14th amendment, 
which defines who are citizens, what are the rights of a citi- 
zen, and specifically give Congress the power to enforce them 
by appropriate legislation. If Calhoun's doctrine of strict 
construction is to be revived to defeat the amendments, then 
nothing is settled. What we mean is, that these amendments 
are the logical results of a great civil war which brushed from 
our atmosphere all taint of slavery, secession and Calhounism ; 
that they shall have their full oj)eration according to the plain 
meaning of English words, and that Congress shall, from 
time to time, pass laws to enforce them ; and that the Presi- 
dent shall execute these law.^fuUy and elficiently, subject only 
to the judicial power of the Courts of the United States. If 



that is what they mean by the new departure, it is all right. 
If not, it is a mere political trick, too shallow to mislead or 
deceive any one. 

Again : What do they mean by their fifth resolution ? Is 
it the mere naked axiom that acts passed by Congress are 
subject to repeal ? If so, why pompously utter what all 
admit? But the context shows that they mean a repeal of all 
the acts passed to enforce the amendments. The amendments 
without the appropriate legislation are mere dogmas without 
inherent power of enforcement. The ten commandments are 
laws of the highest sanction, but what are they worth with- 
out penalties and punishments ? What good does it do to 
say, thou shalt not murder, unless the law comes in and says, 
if thou dost murder, thou shalt surely be put to death or be 
imprisoned? What use is it to say that all men shall have 
equal political and civil rights, unless the law punishes a vio- 
lation of these rights? W^hat does this new departure mean, 
except to say, we recognize the amendments, but we will 
repeal the laws that enforce them ? We had many rights 
secured by the Constitution as it was that were plainly and 
openly nullified. The citizens of any one of the States had 
all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several 
States, and yet for years a citizen of the North could not and 

-■'^'^+s in the South. 
did tiot enjoy nis i.g,..-. --i->plled from South 

Judge Hoar, of Massachusetts, was ^^j— . - •' 

Carolina for the mere effort to appeal to the e&mts of ^_mm 
Carolina for protection from illegal imprisonment of a citizeil^ 
of Massachusetts. The Democratic party, by what they call 
strict construction, and by their refusal to pass appropriate' 
laws, stripped the Constitution of half its vitality. Do the/ 
wish in the same way to emasculate these amendments? Does 
any sensible man believe that a Democratic Congress could oi 
would pass any law to enforce any of these amendments ? Every 
effort of ours to enforce them has been met by the most vio- 
lent parliamentary opposition, and the laws have been resisted 
by organized violence. 

Now they tell us they will repeal the laws, and yet they 
recognize the amendments. They believe in the Maine Liquor 
Law, but are opposed to its enforcement. They confess their 
sins but will surely repeat them. 

The new departure is a good enough Morgan until after 
the election, and then their platform is loose enough for them 
all to creep through and follow their old course of hate, per- 
secution and violence. While these tricks are played upon 
us here, the mass of the Democratic voters in the South are 
waiting and watching— not over ^^le border— but in the heart 
of our country, to restore the lost cause— to upset all that we 
have gained in the last ten years. 



It is only necessary to read the Democratic journals both 
in Ohio and in other States to show that this new departure 
is only to shield themselves behind some jiig(i;lery about the 
construction of the amendments and the mode of their en- 
forcement. The essential modifications made in the conven- 
tion of the Dayton resolutions gives color to this idea, and 
the whole, as they stand in the platform, look like a bad 
mixing of opposing idea«. 

They felt that the public voice demanded that these amend- 
ments must be ratified and indorsed by their party, and yet they 
did not want to do it. They did it with an if — and a damn 
— add a slap — with several loop-holes of escape — with many 
antidotes — and in bad temper generally. The dose was objec- 
tionable to many, but they took it and have not felt well since. 
And now nothing could be more ludicrous in political strategy 
— if it were not dangerous — than to trust the Democratic 
party with the enforcement of these amendments. Better 
give the lamb to the wolf than either the blacks of the South, 
or the loyal people of the South, to the Democratic party of 
either the North or South. The Democratic party of the 
Korth would be powerless to execute their pledge. The same 
men who broke that party at Charleston, the same men who 
sacrificed Douglass, the same men who covered our land with 
the graves of patriot soldiers, would, by virtue of their ma- 
jority, seize the T'ower of the Democratic organization ; and 
where, then, would be the amendments, or the protection of 
loyal people, white or black, or the public's honor as repre- 
sented by the pension list and the public creditors ? From 
the logic of affinities and the association of names and events, 
it is evident that no sincere movement to enforce the amend- 
ments can ever be executed by the Democratic party. Noisy 
crowds that hail with enthusiasm the treasonable utterances 
of Jeff. Davis — the bands of midnight Democratic outlaws 
who make night hideous in the South by murder and name- 
less crimes, without danger or fear of punishment — clearly 
show that the Democratic party of the South can not yet be 
trusted with political power ; while the uncertain, evasive 
and divided voice of the Democratic party of the North — 
with policy pulling one way and principle another — with the 
politicians preaching the new gospel of a new departure, and 
the instincts and prejudices of the masses still opposed — with 
its spoken utterances, like Delphic oracles, paltering in a 
double sense — in such a condition the Democratic party of 
the North is utterly unfit to assume any responsibility in the 
Government except its old role of fault-finding; of opposing 
what we do; of proposing nothing; of voting against every- 
thing — even the English Treaty — in hopes that something will 
turn up. 



Tost the Domocrntic party l>y wliat it has dnne Avhorc ifc 
has been in power recently. Wli:\t gooci did its temporary 
nuijority in the Lcgishiture of Ohio do the people of Ohio? 
It jjledged reform, and yet increased the State expen(htures 
in every l)raiu'h of the service, and lari^ely increased local 
taxes. What has it (h)ne in New York, atid especially in the 
city, where, under 'Jamminy influence, there is established 
the njost scandalous and corrupt municipal government in tho 
■world ? \Vhat can it do for the future of tliis country ? Here 
is a string of fifteen resolutions, and there is no.t a single 
affirmative proposition in them upon which the Democratic 
])arty could stand united, except the one dem-anding amnesty 
to Davis, To()nd)s, and the rebels of the South. 'Jhe first 
seven resolutions they call the new departure. They remind 
one of the famous group of bronze horses at Milan. They 
appear eager to de|)art in every direction, but. go nowhere. 
They tell us that they hold good to the old Democratic doc- 
trine of annexation of territory, but are opposed to the 
acquiring of San Domiligo. They pretend to be for hard 
money, but propose to issue an unlimited amount of green- 
backs. They pretend respect for the laws and the courts, and 
they propose to disregard not only the solemn- pledges of our 
loan laws, but the decision of tb.e Suprenie Court, in order 
to cheat tlie |)ublie creditors. They declare their oppositioQ 
to tiie national banking system, but propose notliing to take 
its place. In their wild and blind opposition they would 
destroy the best system of currency we have ever had, merely 
because it was established by the Republican party. Though 
the first commercial nations of the world are applauding it 
and following our example, though Governor Chase, now one 
of their candidates, fatliercd it and supports it, though no 
man has lost a dollar as the holder of a national bank note, 
y<-t tkey would derange all the business of the country by 
uprooting the system, mereJy because there is su|)posed to be 
virtue in a party cry against banks. They talk about a 
revenue tariff and wise tax laws, and yet no member of 
their party in Congress ever proposed either, but oppose 
every measure offered by us. When we repeal eighty mil- 
lions of taxes, they vote against it. When we devise new 
guards against fraud, they vote against them. They talk 
about economy, and yet they vote for every extravagant ex- 
penditure. They would load us down with rebel losses in 
the war. They seize upon every popular cry — here one 
thing, and there another. In Ohio it is greenbacks; in New 
York it is specie payments; in Pennsylvania it is protection; 
here it is a new departure; in the South it is perpetual war 
against the amendments and death to the negro. With the 
Irish it is Fenianism. In Kentucky it is the llesolutions of 



'98, slightly rpvise.l. "With JrfT*. Divia and his powerful fol- 
lowers it is discord, war Jind di-union. 

Let any impartial man look over the whole field of Xa- 
tional and State polities — let liiiii look at the dan»:;erous ele- 
ments eomprisin*; that party — let him eonsider what they 
Avould probahly do if jjlaced in power — let him combine in 
one cauldron all the iu<:redients, and say upon his oath is it 
wise and politic yet to turn over to the Democratic jiarty the 
administiation of the all'airs of a great nation like ours? 

^Vhen, on the other hand, we turn to the great jiolitical 
organization to which we belong, we may find shadows and 
clouds, but the general policy of the Republican party has 
been elevating, nianly and successful. Above all, we have 
extended to all oiu' inhabitants liberty and equality l)efore 
the courts and the law in civil and political rights. Our 
policy has strengthened the power of the nation without 
sacrificing the rights of the States. The increased powers of 
the Ivuti(»n all inure to the benefit of the individual citizen, 
for the sole object of it all is to enable its to protect the citi- 
zen from local injustice and outrage. 

We have a strong Government, whoso widc-rcaclnn!i 
hand shields and protects the humblest citizen, and yet 
the power of the State to educate and foster — to jirotect 
and encourage — to punish and reward all it citizens, is 
unimpaired. We have now such a Union as George 
Washington described in his Farewell Address, with 
nothing to threaten it but the decaying embers of the 
lie bellion. W^c need to pass no resolutions to assure any 
one that wc will stand by and enforce the 13tli, 1-lth ami 
loth amendments. Wc proposed them; we a(lvocat<-d 
them, and, while su[)ported by the people, will enforce 
them. That wc have been liberal to vanquished foes, is 
shown by the fact that, after waging a war of unexam- 
pled proportions, no blood was shed for political otiensc:^. 
No i)roperty has been confiscated. Many of the leading 
rebels arc now protected in the secure enjoyment of large 
estates, and show their gratitude for our generosity by 
hissing on disguised murderers and outlaws to the mur- 
der and scourging of poor negroes and preachers and 
teachers. We conferred franchises upon millions, but 
we deprived no one of any right they liad before the war, 
except only that we forbade, for a time, the leading 
rebels, of the South from holding olHce. This was the 
extent of our punishment. 1 have been disposed to 
pardon even this, but after recent developments I will 
not vote to relieve froai any disability such men as Davis 
and Tombs who are totally incapable of appreciatinggener- 
osity. I never questioned the justice of excluding these 



8 

men from office; but I would, if their conduct would 
ever allow it, make our treatment of them so generous 
and forgiving, that history never could surpass it. The 
Republican party from its very nature could not be cruel 
or aggressive. We have so nmny hunninitarians among 
us that tbcy often demand amnesty when punishment is 
required. We fought for the liberty of others, and for 
tlie union of all, and could not logically deprive any one 
of either liberty or civil or political rights, except as the 
public safety clearly demanded it. If we have erred, it has 
been in underrating the power of these rebels and the 
danger that may come from them. The Republican 
part}' has excelled the generosity of the Girondists, and 
has exhibited none of the fury of the Mountain. All 
our measures since the war, and the amendments are the 
most important, were aimed to secure personal rights. 
The additional powers given to Congress by the amend- 
ments are only to enable Congress to enforce these rights, 
and to give pardon to the rebels. They talk about the 
Bayonet Bill and the Ku-Klux Bill. These bills were 
demanded by organized resistance to fair elections, and 
to punish crimes of the most revolting character against 
the commonest rights of humanity. If they are not 
sufficient, we will give them others. The difterence is 
that they would encourage these crimes. We try to 
prevent and punish them. If they will restrain their 
fellow Democrats of the South from murder and organ- 
ized frauds, we will repeal these laws. If not, we will 
pass more effective laws. 

On the question of finance, we need no resolutions to show 
where we stand. The whole existing system of financial 
legislation is the work of the Republican party. During the 
war we were driven by our necessities to provide a currency. 
We gave you the Greenbacks and the National Bank Notes. 
The Greenbacks were a forced loan. We did not, in the 
beginning; intend to exceed in amount the sum we could 
maintain at a specie standard ; but our necessities left us no 
choice. We increased them to a dangerous extent, but we 
supported their credit by the legal tender clause, and by the 
right to convert them into interest-bearing bonds. We have, 
since the war, sought to improve their credit, to bring them 
nearer and nearer to the standard of gold. During the two 
years of this administration, we have raised their value from 
69 cents on the dollar to 91 cents on the dollar — and this 
without contraction, distress, panic or financial revulsion. 
If left alone, we will, in two years more, bring them to the 
standard of gold. We had two dangers to avoid: First 
— An increase and consequent depreciation of these notes; 



9 

and Second — A too sudden contraction of currency, and the 
inevitable distress and ruin to those in business or in debt. 
"We could sooner have resumed specie payments by redeeming 
a portion of the greenbacks, but we would thus have changed 
the standard of value and increased the burden of debt. We 
have avoided both extremes. We have maintained in circu- 
lation the maximum limit of greenbacks, and increased their 
value by the natural growth of our business and population, 
and by the public confidence in our policy. The Democratic 
party threaten to subvert this policy. In Ohio they would 
increase the greenbacks — in the east they would redeem 
them, and force, abruptly, specie payments. Disagreeing 
among themselves, they agree to subvert our wise policy, and 
in their platforms threaten again to open the question of 
paying the bonds in greenbacks. Our policy will soon make 
greenbacks and gold the common standard of all values and 
debts ; and if this policy succeeds in the future as in the past, 
our country will present the unexampled spectacle of recov- 
ering from the vast expenditures of a war without discredit 
— without dishonor and without a single wave of financial 
panic. In human life the most prosperous and healthy man 
is rarely contented with his fate; but surely our nation 
should be satisfied with its financial prosperity under the 
greatest difficulties ever overcome by a people, 

^ As to our ba.rxking system, it was but the choice of expe- 
"-Icnts, and was a happy choice. It subverted an incongru- 
ous hotch-pot of State Banks, founded upon the laws of 
thirty-seven different States, without security, without uniform 
value, of local circulation, and endangered by a swarm of 
CQunterfeits. These State Banks were spawn of the extreme 
doctrine of State Rights. If anything should be national, 
it should be bank notes. They are the blood of the system, 
and should flow freely through the system. A centralized 
bank, like the old Bank of the United States, was dangerous 
from its unity and power. It was managed by a few who were 
encouraged to use their power for political ends. Oiir present 
banks are a unit only in their security, form and circulation. 
They can not combine. When carefully supervised and reg- 
ulated by law, and well distributed, they form the most con- 
venient financial agents of the people. In comparison with 
the old State Banks, they are preferable in every respect. 
The only question that can arise in the future, about the 
National Banks, is whether notes issued directly by the Gov- 
ernment, and redeemable by the Government, may not super- 
cede the necessity of bank notes. 

This would save to the people the interest on the circula- 
ting notes. So I'ar, good. Their credit depends mainly upon 
the security of the Government, and the Government should 



10 

share in the profit. But, on the contrary, the general objects 
of a Government are not consistent with other necessary 
functions of a bank. The operation of loaning and redeem- 
ing notes can not safely be performed by Government agents. 
It must be done by private parties, personally interested. 
Government banks could not be proi)erly distributed. Even 
offices of redemption are subject to many dangers. With- 
out going into details upon this subject, we can safely follow 
all modern experience by leaving the business of banking, 
like other business, to the free and interested agency of 
private citizens. The function of the Government is fully 
exhausted when it secures the absolute safety of the note- 
holder, when it prints, in the best form and devices, the bank 
note, and then leaves the private parties, without favor, the 
circulation and the redemption of the notes. This is the 
basis of our present system, and the United States shares in 
the profit by an annual tax of nine millions, and the States and 
municipal corporations in another tax of nine millions, while 
the people enjoy local facilities, unquestioned security, freedom 
from counterfeits, and the uniform credit and value of the note 
in every part of our wide extended country. With this admi- 
rable system, I, for one, am not disposed to interfere except to 
cure such d^-fects as may appear in its practical workings. 

The policy of the Republican party in levying taxes is also 
shown by what we have done. During the war it was money 
that we wanted, and from all sources and quarters. We were 
fi";htino- for national life, and we took w'here we could take 
easiest, and the people sustained us in it. But from the close 
of the war to this hour, we have been reducing taxes. Each 
Congress has relieved the people from taxes. Most of our 
internal taxes levied during the war are now repealed. The 
last Congress threw oif fifty-six millions of such taxes. At 
the next session of Congress the whole system will go by the 
board, except the taxes on spirits, beer and tobacco, and per- 
haps a few stamps. Those that remain will be simplified so 
that the tax-gatherer need only look to the distilleries and 
breweries. Taxes on imported goods must now, as before tlie 
war, be the main reliance of the Government, and even these, 
I promise you, we will'reduce to the extent of at least twenty 
millions, and as much more as our necessary expenditures 
will justify. The articles upon which this reduction will be 
made will be the subject of long dispute. The mere catch- 
phrases with which platform makers tickle and deceive will 
not answer in this work. It is a practical duty, and the only 
test will be to reduce or repeal those that bear most heavily 
upon the jieople. 

My official duty requires me to think of these questions a 
good deal, and I shall, without evasion, in the coming can- 



11 

vas8, enter into details. It is now sufficient for me to say 
that I am utterly opposed to continuing, at a high ra^te, the 
taxes on articles of prime necessity, in common use among all 
our people, merely to be able to reduce the taxes on those ar- 
ticles which enter into competition with our own industry. 
Nor is it wise, by protection laws, to force our home industry 
into unnatural channels. A reduction of duties on necessa- 
ries, large duties on luxuries, and average duties on articles 
competing with our own; this is the general idea which, in 
my opinion, should guide us in reducing our tariif, and they 
surely will guide me. Under our present tariff laws, all de- 
partments of mechanical industry have sprung into healthy 
life, diversifying our products, consuming our farm products, 
and extending our railroads. 

I am for the reduction of taxes by the repeal or modifica- 
tion of all that are excessii/e, but I am not in favor of follow- 
ing any wild theories of political economists, to the destruc- 
tion of any home industry, or to the diminution of our 
revenue so as to endanger a deficiency. 

It is a charming business to repeal taxes, but we must re- 
member that by taxes alone we have been able to pay off 
fully eight hundred millions of floating debt and claims since 
the war was over. We have also paid off, since the war, 
nearly five hundred millions of the funded debt. Since Gen- 
eral Grant was inaugurated, we have paid off two hundred 
and thirty millions of the bonded debt, and thus saved four- 
teen millions of annual interest in gold. We are also dimin- 
ishing the interest on that which remains unpaid. Our 
financial condition is now so assured, that after all the strain 
of the war, our credit is now better than before the war. 
The debt is no longer the mountain that threatens to over- 
throw^ us. Our expenditures, our taxes and our debt, are all 
rapidly diminishing, while our population, our resources, our 
wealth, and our industry, are all rapidly increasing. Such is 
the result of a Republican Administration. In what respect 
can the Democratic party improve this condition of things? 

Such is now oiir financial condition that we can make a 
careful balance of accounts, we can tell very nearly what any 
given tax will produce, we can estimate accurately oijr expen- 
ditures, and may limit our taxes to the bare sums necessary 
to fulfill our loan laws, and meet our necessary expenditures. 
Our taxes may now safely be reduced to this extent, for now 
the people may be sure that under this policy the debt will 
be constantly diminishing, and the taxes be periodically les- 
sened. It is the glory of General Grant's administration 
that, with the reduction of taxes and debt, we have also a 
large reduction of expenditures. The army was largely re- 
duced by the last Congress; the civil service is diminishing 



12 

in every branch of the service, except the postal service, 
which necessarily increases with the growth of the country, 
and the number of employes is lessening, and now we have, 
to^rown other reforms, a movement that will bring about 
civil service reform. A committee of practical men are now 
framing, under the authority of law, a series of regulations 
to secure efficiency in civil service, and to protect faithful 
officers from arbitrary removal. I never doubted the power 
of Congress to regulate the duration of office and the causes 
for removal. I therefore voted for the tenure-of-office act, 
but every Democrat voted against it, alleging it was uncon- 
stitutional. Now they resolve in favor of Civil Service Re- 
form, and denounce us for not bringing it about. All the 
evils complained of had their origin in the precepts and prac- 
tice of Democratic Administrations. "To the victors belong 
the spoils," was their cry, and the amount of spoils according 
to political service, was their rule. No doubt all parties will 
choose from among political friends for political offices; but 
the tenure of their offices, the causes of their removal and the 
requisite qualifications, should all be fixed by regulations 
with the form and sanction of law. Without such regula- 
tions the army and navy would be unorganized mobs. How 
far this system may be established in the civil service, is one 
of the problems this Administration will solve with the hearty 
concurrence of the President and Congress. In the whole 
round of political and social life there is not one single reform, 
progress or advance that may not be entrusted with more 
safety to the Republican party than any other. Gen. Grant 
has fulfilled every promise he has made you. He is executing 
the laws as well as it is possible for any one to do. He fol- 
lows, rather than leads, public opinion, and does not in any 
way force a policy upon the people against their will. His 
military success broke the power of our enemies, and his civil 
administration is marked with prosperity. Let us, then, 
enter upon this canvass with active confidence, ready to rea- 
son with our adversaries — to gather wisdom from opposition ; 
but with a proper appreciation of the merits of our cause and 
party. We have now a ticket, carefully selected, of gentle- 
men \Yorthy of your choice. Upon the election will depend 
a General Assembly, the election of a United States Senator, 
and of the most important State Legislation. More than all, 
the maintenance of Republican principles in the administra- 
tion of the National Government will be greatly afiected by 
our election. 

Ohio often speaks for the whole country, and I hope will 
do so now. ^^^ 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

'Hill iiir I'll II'' !M|| 



013 789 495 6 • 



